ByGrace3 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I love these boards and have gotten so much helpful info, but I have to admit, sometimes it makes me question myself. :001_huh: So, if you are doing or have done a) (at least mostly) a WTM first grade, can you tell me if a) this seems reasonable and b) does your first grade seem similar? I think all the threads that say "We finish first grade in an hour a day or 30 minutes a day" are kind of making me :001_huh: I understand we all have different goals at this age/ different ways of doing it. (and no judgement to those doing that!) ;) Just wondering if we are alone in the way we are doing it. I am not really sure what I am looking to hear . . . maybe that I am reading/interpreting that blue book correctly ;) ... or maybe that yes, there are others out there schooling in similar fashion. I think part of the issue is I know "some" in our hs group think I am a little intense for first grade, but is it just philisophical differences? Is this on track for a classical/WTM first grade. DD is thriving, we play lots of games, very hands on, I just wonder are we alone? (I know I am not, I just need to hear it! or maybe hear that I am crazy!) :tongue_smilie: Thanks! Our schedule: Daily: Bible 30 minutes Piano 30 minutes (goal, but doesn't always happen) Math 45 minutes Phonics 10-15 minutes plus 15 minutes or so of reading 4X/ week Spelling (AAS) 15 minutes WWE 10 minutes 3X/week FLL 5-10 minutes History 30 minutes 2X/week Science 20-30 minutes She also is in team gymnastics 2X a week which we count as PE. (3 hours total) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down_the_Rabbit_Hole Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I love these boards and have gotten so much helpful info, but I have to admit, sometimes it makes me question myself. :001_huh: So, if you are doing or have done a) (at least mostly) a WTM first grade, can you tell me if a) this seems reasonable and b) does your first grade seem similar?I think all the threads that say "We finish first grade in an hour a day or 30 minutes a day" are kind of making me :001_huh: I understand we all have different goals at this age/ different ways of doing it. (and no judgement to those doing that!) ;) Just wondering if we are alone in the way we are doing it. I am not really sure what I am looking to hear . . . maybe that I am reading/interpreting that blue book correctly ;) ... or maybe that yes, there are others out there schooling in similar fashion. I think part of the issue is I know "some" in our hs group think I am a little intense for first grade, but is it just philisophical differences? Is this on track for a classical/WTM first grade. DD is thriving, we play lots of games, very hands on, I just wonder are we alone? (I know I am not, I just need to hear it! or maybe hear that I am crazy!) :tongue_smilie: Thanks! Our schedule: Daily: Bible 30 minutes Piano 30 minutes (goal, but doesn't always happen) Math 45 minutes Phonics 10-15 minutes plus 15 minutes or so of reading 4X/ week Spelling (AAS) 15 minutes WWE 10 minutes 3X/week FLL 5-10 minutes History 30 minutes 2X/week Science 20-30 minutes She also is in team gymnastics 2X a week which we count as PE. (3 hours total) The above is what you need to focus on. If what you are doing with your dd is not filling your day with tears and frustration then it is right for you and your family. My dd (1st)does school about 3 hrs a day also. We do not school all at once but cover Bible, Math, English, Spelling, Writing, Reading, Science, History, Latin and Art throughout the day with many breaks in between classes. With the exception of Math and if History/science has a hands on activity most of her classes take about 15 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 When I did first grade with Rebecca, my schedule looked similar. The only thing I would say is that the math time seems a litte long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happyhomemaker Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Your schedule sounds a lot like ours. Ds doesn't do piano, but we do 1 hr of music appreciation and 1 hr of art/ art appreciation each week. We do a little less with Bible and math and probably a little more in reading, history, and science It sounds like you are doing a great job, and that your dd is enjoying her education. Don't second guess yourself! Btw, there are some days when we do 1 1/2 hrs and call it a day for 1st grade, and we can fit in the 3Rs in that time, but generally we strive to do more than just what is necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenjenn Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I have a first grader, and your schedule looks very similar to mine. Biggest difference is we are doing 60-90 minutes these days of math, but, my child really enjoys and excels at math. When we stared it was with 30 mins. Our history is usually closer to an hour, but religious studies are included in history and we don't have a separate time for Bible study. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JessicaLady Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I wouldn't question it if it's working for you. The only reason we do not do more school is because my son cannot focus for longer than 1hr15min. Some days I TRY to stretch it a bit longer because he also has vision therapy homework (which can be quite time consuming for us), but afterwards he's competely zoned out. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen in NS Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I think part of the issue is I know "some" in our hs group think I am a little intense for first grade, but is it just philisophical differences? Is this on track for a classical/WTM first grade. DD is thriving, we play lots of games, very hands on, I don't think your plan is outrageous. You're teaching her basic academic skills, and throwing in some "extras" such as history and science. When my kids were in grade 1, I tried to schedule three hours per week of history and two hours per week of science (I really needed WTM to hold my hand!!). That fell by the wayside after a couple of years, because I schedule things differently now (history and science reading occur during their "reading time" each day). If your daughter is thriving, then you're fine. You'll adjust things through the years anyway. The important thing is to understand why you are doing what you are doing. That will help you to adjust your schedule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
violingirl Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I think your schedule looks fine if it is working for you. Go for it. :) Our school day is shorter with my first grader, but I don't assign times to achieve- we work until we are done with the day's assignment. So math could take 10 minutes one day, it could take 40 minutes on another. But if it's a concept he understands and can demonstrate to me in 10 minutes, I don't make him do another assignment or play more rounds of a math game to fill in "math time". My son does very well when he knows exactly what work is to be completed that day. It doesn't matter how long or short the list is, but when he knows exactly what must be done he is cheerful, diligent and careful in his work. When he doesn't know the list and he worries that we'll "never be done" he rushes and gets really sloppy and whiny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetterthanIdeserve Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I'm a bit like you and have wondered the same thing. We have a fairly similar schedule, however, and it seems to take us about 3 hours a day to get through it all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedgehog Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 Our schedule: Daily: Bible 30 minutes Piano 30 minutes (goal, but doesn't always happen) Math 45 minutes Phonics 10-15 minutes plus 15 minutes or so of reading 4X/ week Spelling (AAS) 15 minutes WWE 10 minutes 3X/week FLL 5-10 minutes History 30 minutes 2X/week Science 20-30 minutes She also is in team gymnastics 2X a week which we count as PE. (3 hours total) Looks good to me. I'd probably do less Math - 30mins - and less Piano - 15-20mins - but then Tigger is a boy, with the usual constant case of the wriggles and some days, the attention span of a gnat, so I have to break our schoolwork up into half hour chunks with lots of jumping about in between times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted October 17, 2011 Author Share Posted October 17, 2011 Our school day is shorter with my first grader, but I don't assign times to achieve- we work until we are done with the day's assignment. So math could take 10 minutes one day, it could take 40 minutes on another. We don't actually time anything either (except for spelling). We just do the next thing in most. Math has been a tough one. We struggled for awhile and it was taking 1- 1.5 hours. Tears for her and me :glare: 2 weeks ago we regrouped and now have a new plan. We were doing 2 pages of MM/day, now we are mostly one, some days 1.5, but have added in the right start games. No tears, and dd is actually enjoying math. Much better! :D Again, I don't time it, but 45 minutes seems to be about the average, if it is less that's fine. Oh, and we do read alouds at night before bed, so if you count those (which I kind of do) that would be another 30 minutes or so ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted October 17, 2011 Author Share Posted October 17, 2011 Looks good to me. I'd probably do less Math - 30mins - and less Piano - 15-20mins - but then Tigger is a boy, with the usual constant case of the wriggles and some days, the attention span of a gnat, so I have to break our schoolwork up into half hour chunks with lots of jumping about in between times. We actually took July through September off from piano, but her piano teacher last year assigned 30 minutes a day. 15 minutes morning and 15 minutes in the evening. I can't usually fit in two fifteen minutes sessions, so she usually does 20-30 in the morning before breakfast while I am getting everyone moving. She has a pretty solid attention span though. I imagine when ds is in first I will be posting about our 1 hour school days! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 When I did first grade with Rebecca, my schedule looked similar. The only thing I would say is that the math time seems a litte long. :iagree: That was my thoughts too, though I completely understand math going longer some days! Usually, if we went past 30 minutes, it was a never ending math time. So I found it best to stop at 30 minutes and just finish up later in a separate session if we needed to. I think you only need 1.5 pages a day to get done in 180 day school year, IIRC. And you might find that in some of the sections, you can do 2 pages easily, whereas some sections you can't. Anyway, your schedule looks great. It's very similar to what we did. And if it's working, don't change a thing! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirch Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 Looks very similar to ds 7's first grade year, except for piano. We alternated spelling and grammar every day, and he was also doing Song School Latin (alternating each day with handwriting--we didn't start WWE until 2nd grade). I didn't plan to do math for more than 30 minutes, but playing games (we use RightStart) often stretched out our math time to 45 minutes or even an hour, if it was a game he liked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsabelC Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 (edited) I don't think it's too much if you and your child are feeling reasonably happy with it. Don't forget, a lot depends on what you do and don't call school. If you think about a first grader in a public school, they would be at school all day for 6 hours or so. They would still have to do piano practice at home, and probably Bible too. The gymnastics likely wouldn't be offered at school, so that would be an after school activity as well. Chances are that this child would also be sent home with a little Reader or a short list of words to learn as homework. So taking all that into account, your full schedule still amounts to significantly less time than a same aged schooled child would be putting in. Having said that, you are, of course, working at a far greater intensity than in the school situation. So if it does start to feel like too much, you shouldn't feel bad about easing up a little bit, either by shortening your sessions or by alternating some things instead of doing them every day. Edited October 17, 2011 by Hotdrink Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 It is nearly identical to our schedule but swap out Tae Kwon Do for gymnastics. As far as times, instead of a set time for piano, I have ds practice each song 3 times, and I split up the theory work into 3 days or so, depending on how much his teacher assigned. The math does seem long to me too. I shoot for 2 pages of MM if the concept is fairly easily grasped by ds, 1 if it is difficult or there are a lot of problems. Maria Miller scheduled 1.5 pages per day in a 200 day school year to finish, but even with our method we will still finish early. I guess it all works out in the end :D. I'm with you though that some days it feels like a lot depending on ds's attitude. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annabel Lee Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 Your schedule looks very much like what I did with my youngest, who was the only one to get a WTM education for 1st grade (didn't read it until middle child was starting 2nd). He had Tae Kwon Do instead of gymnastics, but did have "homeschool P.E." at a gymnastics studio, because my kids loved it. He also joined older brother for art & Spanish that year. If your 45 min. of math includes RS games, I don't think that's too long. I'm doing another math program with RS games in lieu of flashcards most days, and those games simply take more time than running through a stack of cards. If she's thriving, it's not a huge struggle, and you feel the time is being used efficiently, then good job! I wish I'd have figured that out back when mine were in 1st grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jyniffrec Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 It looks good to me! I have a dd that is bored unless I give her enough schooling and I have another one that can't wait to be done so she can move on with her day. I wouldn't slack off just because other people around you think you are doing too much. If your dd is content and doesn't seem overwhelmed, then keep doing what you are doing! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UmMusa Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 Looks similar to mine except mine spends 20 minutes on her MM pages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorrelZG Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 My child isn't in first but I can tell you that I could very well have a schedule similar to yours and still tell you over coffee that I only do school in 1.5hrs per day because I simply wouldn't be counting the time we spend on Bible or music or physical activity (and I wouldn't be spending quite that long on math .. hopefully .. on a good day at least). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VBoulden Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 Your schedule seems totally reasonable to me. The only difference I can see is that we wouldn't do "45 minutes of math." We'd do math but it never took that long. We do a lesson a day (or a test) and it rarely takes longer than 20 minutes. We'd also do Bible but never takes "30 minutes" to read and talk about a certain amount of Scripture everyday. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted October 17, 2011 Author Share Posted October 17, 2011 I am a little surprised about the math comments. I guess I didn't think 45 minutes a day for math was that much. Especially if we are adding games. Also, that is only 1-1.5. Dd is just S.L.O.W when it comes to math :glare: Last year we did Saxon and it was an easy 1hr+ for math each day... and that was K :001_huh: I know the Bible is long, but we LOVE the Bible we are doing, lots of review built in, timeline and song/list memory plus about 7 minutes or so of that time is at the end while they color a picture listening to their memory verse songs (while I clean up from breakfast) :tongue_smilie: So, all that to say we are good with the time we are spending on Bible. As for math...anyone else take that long? It just takes dd that long to do the work, should I require less of her? (Again, we just cut it from 2 pgs to 1/1.5). Today was less, maybe 25 minutes bc it was review and we didn't play games (which dd really needs to help her solidify the concepts) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 (edited) When Ana was a 1st grader our schedule was similar. We never did that much math but we did do Latin. I have my fifth 1st grader this year. I can tell you I suspect he would THRIVE on that schedule. It would have b:001_smile:rutalized my second and fourth children. Why don't I school like that now? Sometimes it is admittedly because I can't. In some instances it is because I can now do more with less time and effort. I am a fan of C.M.'s philosophy of short lessons and expecting their total attention and good work for small periods of time. Personality of the child, personality of the mother, family dynamics... There are as many reasons why a person or family schools the way they do as there are families. If it is working for you, your daughter, and your family then GREAT! Of course just because it is working does not necessarily make it the only way either. ;) Eleven years into this homeschooling journey I no longer do K-4th grade formal math at all. However we work on reading faithfully with our 3 year old. Beliefs definitely change and evolve over time! Never say never, always, none, or all! Edited October 18, 2011 by BlsdMama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sahamamama Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 Our schedule:Daily: Bible 30 minutes Piano 30 minutes (goal, but doesn't always happen) Math 45 minutes Phonics 10-15 minutes plus 15 minutes or so of reading 4X/ week Spelling (AAS) 15 minutes WWE 10 minutes 3X/week FLL 5-10 minutes History 30 minutes 2X/week Science 20-30 minutes We are currently doing first grade with our oldest. :seeya: Our subject line-up looks similar to this, but our schedule doesn't look anything like this. I'm not really sure how, but we still get it all done. We are plodders, not planners. I have yet to enslave myself to a daily schedule, but I blame my Pre-K'er twins for that, LOL. ;) We get up, eat breakfast, get dressed, and "do what we do when we do what we do." So far, that is our school motto. :lol: I would say that all three girls here are thriving and happy and far above "grade level." That probably is part of what helps me to be so relaxed. HTH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Five More Minutes Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 I'd agree with previous posters -- if the schedule is working for you, then you've found the right fit. Ours is quite similar. My goal is to finish up school before noon, so whatever doesn't happen before lunch gets pushed to the next day. I've found that math takes 45 min. here as well. I think it's because we start with some warm-up activities like finding the date on the calendar, making a weather chart, recording how many school days we've had, and some math fact review or skip counting. The warm-up takes about 10-15 minutes, so our actual time spent on the lesson ends up being 30 minutes. (Sometimes it even goes longer. :blush:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted October 18, 2011 Author Share Posted October 18, 2011 We are currently doing first grade with our oldest. :seeya: Our subject line-up looks similar to this, but our schedule doesn't look anything like this. I'm not really sure how, but we still get it all done. We are plodders, not planners. I have yet to enslave myself to a daily schedule, but I blame my Pre-K'er twins for that, LOL. ;) We get up, eat breakfast, get dressed, and "do what we do when we do what we do." So far, that is our school motto. :lol: I would say that all three girls here are thriving and happy and far above "grade level." That probably is part of what helps me to be so relaxed. HTH. Would you care to share what your schedule does look like? So, are you saying that you are using the same/similar programs but it takes less time? While I have a "schedule", we really are what I consider flexible. We don't watch the clock, those times just seem to be about average of what it takes us. And some days we accomplish more than others. Today, ds is sick, we did Bible, math, WWE, and reading and called it a day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 I am a little surprised about the math comments. I guess I didn't think 45 minutes a day for math was that much. Especially if we are adding games. Also, that is only 1-1.5. Dd is just S.L.O.W when it comes to math :glare: Last year we did Saxon and it was an easy 1hr+ for math each day... and that was K :001_huh: Saxon lessons take longer than MM lessons. :) MM usually took us about 20 minutes. I didn't assign all the problems. It's designed with extra problems so you don't have to (kind of like school textbooks in high school, where we'd be assigned just the odd problems for homework - we never did ALL the problems). Now if you count a MM lesson AND math games, I could see that being 45 minutes, and I think that'd be totally fine. If it's taking you 45 minutes to do MM, I'd probably cut her off at 30 minutes and see how that goes. In my house, if we went beyond 30 minutes at that age, we didn't get any more done. We could plod for an hour and still not get anything more done than we did in the first 30 minutes. That's just how it went. :tongue_smilie: We also didn't do any kind of calendar/weather/counting time or whatever. DS had done Saxon K and half of Saxon 1 already, and those morning meetings were enough to last him for a lifetime. He knows those things like the back of his hand and hasn't forgotten them! :D Now he's helping me do them with DS2 (not using Saxon), including pointers on how the money is used. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linguistmama Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Since you are doing games along with MM that time seems about right to me. We take a long time to do school. Part of that is because we also do Spanish. And between pregnant me needing lots of snack and potty breaks and dd being happier with short breaks between subjects it is what it is. Usually I'm a morning person, but right now we usually don't even start school until 12 or later. :) It's part of what I like about homeschooling. DD is happy with how we do things and I am too. Later we will probably go back to school in the morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sahamamama Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Would you care to share what your schedule does look like? So, are you saying that you are using the same/similar programs but it takes less time? While I have a "schedule", we really are what I consider flexible. We don't watch the clock, those times just seem to be about average of what it takes us. And some days we accomplish more than others. Today, ds is sick, we did Bible, math, WWE, and reading and called it a day. Our schedule looks like this: I am in pain = we don't do school I am not in pain = we do school (evenings, Saturday mornings, holidays, Sunday afternoons, any time I am not in too much pain, we make progress) That's about it. The girls are thriving, in spite of me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorrelZG Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Personally, I only commented on the math because my child does math in 15 minutes BUT that's not counting any games or anything, just pages (1.5-2 of MM or however much he can do of something else) and I only try to keep a 15 minute limit because he's K. Considering 1st grade and games included, and you did mention your dd is a little slow with the work, I suppose 45 min doesn't sound that unreasonable and if it's working fine for both of you then awesome. I don't think Bible is long either. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivka Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 We do about 45 minutes of math a day, too, so it's not just you. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 We finish in 1-1.5 hours. We cover math, grammar, spelling/dictation, memory work daily. History 3 days a week, science 2 days. We do a lesson a day, when we are done, we are done. I don't require a set time per day. If grammar takes 5 minutes....then we are done. I will stop math if it is taking too long, we pick it back up the next day and I adjust the schedule for the year. We did piano last year, not this year right now. I do not count that in school time. Read alouds and silent reading are not counted in that time. We read before bed and he reads after we finish school. I am no longer involved at that point. He just reports what he read and tells me something about it when he finishes. So, if you count dance, co-op, and reading, we may hit 4-5 hours a day. I just don't count it that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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